Thursday has arrived, party people. The future really is here when your Tesla can now be called as a witness to a crime. Wait, what? In cities like San Francisco and Oakland, authorities are getting warrants to tow Teslas suspected of having potentially filmed a crime while they were in Sentry Mode. It’s already been successful in catching criminals.

In other news… people just want to speak to a human, female artists ruled the summer, and American tennis pros may finally win on their home turf again.

Want to discover even more newsletters? Here are some of our favorites

• YouTube – A Minecraft Movie

• X (Twitter) – Joker: Folie à Deux

• Google – Dancing with the Stars

• Reddit – Chappell Roan

• TikTok – “September” - Earth, Wind & Fire

• Spotify – “Song Of The Lake” - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds 

.BUSINESS.

People just want a human when they call customer service

Gen Z may not like talking on the phone generally, but they do love it when it comes to talking to a human customer service representative. Unfortunately, getting one on the phone has become a nearly impossible maze.

The Big Picture: Companies that make talking to a flesh-and-blood customer service rep a part of their business plan could find themselves with a loyal customer base who feels like their questions and concerns are valued.

Between the Lines: Insider notes that talking to a human customer service rep is now “a privilege, not a right.”

• Companies have opted to put customer service help in the hands of chatbots, FAQs, and email, leaving humans as a last resort.

• Some brands, like Best Buy, Fidelity, and Yelp, are even putting easy access to humans behind a paywall.

• That corporate cost-cutting on call centers has a negative impact on customer satisfaction — research shows that people really want human connection when going through a stressful situation.

Closing Thoughts: When dealing with “premium brands or services,” Gen Z actually likes to call as much as boomers (millennials still hate picking up the phone). While boomers decry that talking to a person is simply how things used to be, Gen Zers now see the ability to speak to someone as a luxury. So, by giving them something that used to be commonplace, any brand might be able to look like they’re going the extra mile for their customers. Prepare for some budgets to be… well… rebudgeted.

Go Deeper: Will AI solve our customer-service crisis? Please hold…

50.3% of you voted No in yesterday’s poll: Do you work at a small business?

“I work in philanthropy.”

“I’m self-employed. Just me; that’s pretty small!”

“I own a small business.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT TIEGE HANLEY.

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Media, Music, & Entertainment

• The US Open will have an American facing off in the championship game for the first time in nearly 20 years. [Read More]

• Indie films are having a great summer, topped by the record-breaking success of Neon’s horror film, Longlegs. [Read More]

• A total of 64 million Americans tuned into NFL games last season on the radio. [Read More]

Fashion & E-Commerce

• Walmart is collabing with StockX to offer a selection of pre-verified sneakers on its e-commerce site. [Read More]

• The US Consumer Product Safety Commission is considering investigating SHEIN, Temu, and other foreign fast-fashion retailers. [Read More]

• The Nordstrom family is making a $3.8 billion bid to take its namesake company private. [Read More]

Tech, Web3, & AI

• The CrowdStrike meltdown that brought down Microsoft systems all over the world is set for a Congressional hearing later this month. [Read More]

• Driverless, steering-wheelless Zoox robotaxis are set to hit the road soon… with a fleet of remote drivers just in case. [Read More]

• The new space race is getting GPS onto the moon. [Read More]

Creator Economy

• Wasserman is acquiring creator-focused management firm Long Haul for an undisclosed amount. [Read More]

• Snap is experimenting with putting sponsored chats next to messages from real friends. [Read More]

• Spotter’s new AI tools are allegedly helping creators rack up 49% more views on their content. [Read More]

.MUSIC.

Female artists help Universal Music Publishing win the summer

Thanks to a wave of distinctive (and confessional) new albums from female artists, Universal Music was behind the biggest songs of the summer.

The Big Picture: Charli XCX may not be a Universal client, but brat summer reached far and wide for female artists, giving the girls reign over the top of the charts just a year after Taylor Swift (also a UMPG client) ruled the music world.

Between the Lines: UMPG has a lot to brag about this summer.

• Female clients had some of the biggest singles of the summer, including Billie Eilish (“Birds of a Feather”), Sabrina Carpenter (“Espresso”), Lorde (“Girl, So Confusing” remix), Megan Thee Stallion (“Mamushi”), and Ariana Grande (“We Can’t Be Friends”).

• That led UMPG to land the top spot during the second quarter of 2024 in Billboard’s Publisher’s Quarterly.

• Part of the reason was the 2022 hiring of Sony’s Jennifer Knoepfle as EVP and co-head of US A&R, who brought over super-producer Jack Antonoff along with her — Antonoff is a favorite collaborator among many of the mentioned artists.

Closing Thoughts: Whether it’s UMPG artists like Swift and Carpenter, or non-clients like Charli XCX and Chappell Roan, female expression is definitely in the air… which Knoepfle says is due to a “beautiful freedom in the business right now that’s allowing people to just be who they want to be, and that empowerment is spreading. I think that might be one reason why we’re seeing so many female artists explode at the same time.” Essentially, every listener has someone to identify with.

Go Deeper: Songwriter Amy Allen is the pen behind many of the biggest pop hits of the summer. Put some respect on the stealthy wordsmiths.

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT EXPRESS PROS.

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• Watch: Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve gets into the nitty gritty of how he crafted the amazing sandworm-riding sequence in Dune: Part Two.

• Listen: WSJ explores how some workers in their 20s and 30s are carving mini-retirements into their careers to create space for extended travel.

• Read: Fast Company interviews Autograph co-founder and CEO Dillon Rosenblatt about how the NFT platform is coming back in a new-and-improved form… and without the speculative aspects of NFTs.

Caught hot-handed.

LATEST PODCAST EPISODE

Today, on an extra special bonus episode of Future Forecast, our hosts Boye and Chris sit down with Andrew Kenward, the President and COO of Almost Friday Media. Andrew was an agent at WME in the digital media department at WME before being brought into the Almost Friday universe in 2021. We chat with him about his career, his goals for the brand moving forward, and what it's like working in media today.